Rainbow Six 3 Trainyard Impressions

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It's free, but is the latest download worth your time?

By Hilary Goldstein

Announced a while back, the Trainyard download for Rainbow Six 3 has finally (and a bit covertly) been released on Xbox Live. Originally planned to release several weeks ago, the new level is here and ready to be used for Adversarial games. Be warned though, that this 1600 block download is a big, big, big map. Perhaps the biggest I've seen for Rainbow Six 3. If you like to play with less than a dozen people, stop reading this, Trainyard is not for you.

I played a few games of Trainyard in a six-on-six Team Survival match. I have to say, even with a dozen folks, this map proved too big for its own good. There's a lot going on here. Aesthetically, this is one of the best maps out there. Each section of the map shows off something different, it's not just a yard full of trains, as the name would imply. There's office buildings, a rooftop, a variety of ladders (even one that takes you on top of a train) and plenty of places to hide and ambush.

So visually, this is all cool. I mean, I dig it a lot just looking at it. But functionality is problematic. There's a good layout for the map, but it really is too damn big. Even with a dozen players, it wasn't long before people were wandering around looking for someone to kill. One game, I ran around searching for people to kill and I never found anyone. Not in five minutes. Not one person. That's ridiculous.

When I did run into people, it lead to some fantastic firefights, because there's a lot to run behind for cover, and grenades can take some crazy hops with so many objects to bounce off of. The problem was actually running into people. Once, I ran into two going up the stairs, fought my way to the ground, and lost them by running through the belly of a freight train. Very cool, yes, but then the rest of the match I was wandering around looking for someone to kill and finally had to resort to tossing grenades to attract some attention.

In the end, it's a free download and you likely have tons of space on your hard drive. But is this the map you'll be playing a lot? Nope. For myself, I'd start some games on this with friends with an agreement to limit our movements to specific areas on the map. Even without the offices and rooftop, this is a sizable area. If you love big maps, then you'll have a lot to love. If you get really annoyed about having to search a good minute or two for anyone to kill, pass on this one.